The headline in yesterday’s Observer was ‘NHS chiefs in standoff with Treasury over emergency £10bn’. Apparently: The row piles pressure on Sunak to find more money for the NHS ahead of his summer statement on Wednesday. The article says that, according to the NHS: “There’s a very, very significant difference between the phrase ‘the NHS… Read more
Category:
Psychology
Drugs ‘R’ Us
This was a retweet from a Lincolnshire Police Chief Inspector which I encountered and which I feel is well worth drawing attention to. It is a quite devastating commentary by (I understand) the former Chief Constable of Durham : The end result is a fully self-defeating drugs policy. And not just for drugs, but also… Read more
And now 20 ways to try to prevent ‘Justice denied’
The Secret Barrister, he of book fame, has a wonderful tweet which recalls my previous piece on the criminal justice system but is much more detailed. It is unfortunately, even worse than I initially thought. I’ve linked to the thread here so if you are interested – and I think we all ought to be,… Read more
Justice denied
In Johnson’s very soft and undemanding breakfast interview yesterday he said he wanted ‘county lines gangs totally wound up‘. I , (together with the Evening Standard!) have already suggested an educational route that would help. But, if he’s actually serious, in order to achieve that ‘winding up’ he will have to spend some money on… Read more
Dominic Raab – still working for the away advantage
These are a couple of comments on a piece written by Dominic Raab (him again) in Canada’s The Globe and Mail: “We realize you are desperately seeking new friends after the Brexit debacle. May we suggest that a chaotic exit from the EU, due entirely to Tory incompetence and greed, may put off rather a… Read more
Bozo the clown is not so stupid
It is somehow fitting that there was a mass brawl on the P&O ship Britannia which occured after “patriotic” partying on deck and, allegedly, an argument over a clown. The country itself now has its own clown in charge and the current cabinet looks so unwholesome that Open Democracy has called it the government of… Read more
Making almost three quarters of UK trading more difficult
This is an interesting map showing what trade agreements the EU has around the world and those that are still in negotiation (click to enlarge): The approximate quantity of trade that Britain conducts with the EU and with EU negotiated trade agreement countries is: EU 44%, USA 13%, Switzerland 5%, Hong Kong 2%, Turkey… Read more
The social contract is not what it seems
There is a notable piece from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) ‘Imagining a New Social Contract’, on the desirability of having both a Universal Basic Income and Universal Basic Services. Indeed, I come more and more to the conclusion that this style of scheme is likely to be the only real way to offer a… Read more
How money is created is always political
There is an informative review of a book published by the Yale University Press (which as far as I can detect is not yet available in the UK) by the British economist and biographer of John Maynard Keynes, Robert Skidelsky: Money and Government: The Past and Future of Economics. Although Robert Sidelsky has been both… Read more
BBC Brexit Coverage: Objective Truth, Relativism and Gaslighting
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” – Daniel Patrick Moynihan BBC’s public news purpose: To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them: The BBC will provide accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming of the highest editorial… Read more